8740w - Considering purchase advice requested

This is my first post on the forum and I wish to begin by thanking everyone in advance for any help they might be able to offer and for all the wisdom and insight many have already shared in the various posts on the forum.

I have almost decided to purchase a 8740w from either Newegg or Hp directly. I have been working my way through the owner lounge posts, but I have some specific questions I was hoping to get some advice / opinions on.

I work as a designer and use Rhino 3d, Sketchup, AutoCad (though increasingly Draftsight), and MODO for modeling and drafting. I render using Vray, but would only rarely use this laptop for renders as I have a dedicated render machine at work. I am curious if any users have opinions regarding the 8740w for these or similar applications.

I am rather confused regarding the choice of GPUs available on these machines. It seems many owners opted for the ATI m7820 over the Quadros, and again with regard to 3d modeling applications I am curious how this choice has worked out. I have used Quadro cards in desktops, but for most of the applications I use performance drivers are not an issue. I understand however that the ATI drivers are a problem with some applications and again any owners opinions or thoughts would be very helpful. With that said, the ATI card simply seems more powerful and efficient while costing significantly less. Cost is of some concern and part of the appeal of the 8740w is the apparent ability to purchase a capable system reasonably and upgrade it over time.

While the GPU is a big question mark for me, I am also struggling over the choice of WSXGA or WUXGA resolutions. I recognize this is primarily a preference issue, but here again any users with experience in the type of software I use would be of great interest to me as I weigh these options.

To summarize, I am very curious about the 8740w for 3d modeling and digital design applications and would greatly appreciate any advice regarding configuration of said machine in general and regarding GPU and screen resolution specifically.

Again, thanks for your time and any advice you can share.

Mike

 

Bench / Specs Thread

hiya mike, welcome to the forum, i do most of what you are doing above, but i use quadro boards, over ati ones, (mainly due to tradition i guess)

but anyway, the thread above there has a lot of information regarding benches/specs of machines and chips.

I use 1200p because my version of maya and max has custom GUI setups, and tbh, there is much more viewable areas of the gui in higher resolutions, no scrolling on toolbars to find things.

if you have specific questions re V-ray or max/maya/rhino/autocad etc. just shout.

the bench thread should help you out alot though.

Sio

 

Siorah,

Thanks for the link. That post was indeed very helpful. If I am understanding it correctly it seems to indicated fairly convincingly that the Quadros are better for most all optimized pro software, but the m7820 is superior in games and similar software where the 3dmark and vantage scores are indicative.

While quite decisive, this still leaves some questions with regard to applications like Rhino 3d and Sketchup which, as I understand it, won't take advantage of any technology specific to the Quadro line. Understanding that you are perhaps less directly knowledgeable of the m7820 in these programs would you hazard a guess as to the relative strength of a Quadro 2800 and an m7820 for these applications? I can appreciate if I am asking a lot, but even an opinion of someone with your knowledge could be helpful.

Also, I have read with great interest your posts regarding the ability to upgrade the 8740w. The ability to upgrade the cooling and CPU easily might sway me towards a an i7-640m with a future upgrade to a Quad core (understanding the 8 gig limitation based on expense).

Having said that, I was wondering if you might weigh in on the possibility and ease with which a 1680x1050 screen might be switched for a TN:6 1920x1200. I have seen these screens available on Ebay, but are there other considerations with regard to changing to a higher resolution screen that I am not aware of(bezel, cables, etc...).

Thanks again for your response and assistance. I really appreciate any further help you or others might be able to offer.

-Mike

 

ok,

for sketchup and rhino, which has no access to cuda tech, it is the cheaper, but more common sense decision to go with the ati over nvidia. it is also a DX11 card, whereas the 2800m/3800m is only DX10, so instant thing is the ati is much newer, which it is.

Yes, there are many options available, you can put a quad cpu in a dual cpu board, but you will lose out to the 32gb max option, but in your case, you could save a bundle this way. the quad cpu cooler is only like 40 bucks/25 quid, so much more economical.

You can upgrade the screen, but be warned, if it's not done properly or by a hp pro/techie, they can turn around and invalidate your warranty. so bear than in mind on your screen choice. it is possible to do, but make sure the person doing it is really really good at what they do, or it can hurt.

also you can upgrade ram easily, don't get it preconfigured with more than 2gb lol, they still charge FAR too much for memory.

hope this helps